<Hollyhock God> He points his black-and-white metal staff at the machine. Crackling blue lightning surges out from his hand along its length and into the machine, which snaps, crackles, and begins to whirr down into silence.

<Hollyhock God> Another wave of the rod disperses the column of light shooting up into the sky and returns the room's temperature to normal.

<Hollyhock God> "This is going to pay my heating bills for years once I get that surge back to the home front," he says happily.

<Hollyhock God> "He built this machine?" asked E'jah. "Someone must have helped him. I could try performing some Rites if there are no experts present."

<Ebba> (Isn't Fiona our Rite expert? Since she's the one with all the Spirit? )

<Ryan Sherbrig> (Pity she's sheep-watching.)

<Hollyhock God> "Surely there must be traces of whatever miracles were used to create such a thing, or to inspire this lunatic…"

<Hollyhock God> "But no, I do not see them. I am not so expert with the true Rites as I am with alchemy or thaumaturgy, however."

<Ryan Sherbrig> "At the moment, with no evidence that this isn't just an odd moment of inspiration, I'm inclined to leave it be, but if this becomes a repeated occurrence I wouldn't be against employing High Summoning to get to the bottom of it."

<Hollyhock God> "This machine is beyond anything that someone could come up with with mere 'inspiration,'" explains Benjamin. "It's several new technologies ahead. And someone is going to want to know how that hole got in the roof."

<Hollyhock God> "I suppose now that the roof is fixed we can alter a few minds and say nothing more about it," admits Dana. "It's probably impossible to keep it secret given the number of us present, though."

<Ebba> "Hmpf. We must be doing something wrong. Only the people we don't like seem to be the ones vulnerable to candy."

<Ryan Sherbrig> "Well, with no permanent damage caused, I don't see it as necessary to keep it… mmm."

<Ryan Sherbrig> ("And Ryan's organizational leadership!")

<Ryan Sherbrig> ("Thank you, Marley, that was the opposite of helpful.")

<Hollyhock God> And so, the day… is saved, thanks to… SCIENCE!

<Ryan Sherbrig> Hooray!

<Hollyhock God> What are you going to do with exclamation point man?

<Ebba> (We could put him in the pocket universe, give him working materials, and see if he ends up coming up with anything interesting.)

<Ryan Sherbrig> "Do any of you want this excitable man?"

<Ryan Sherbrig> What was he looking for in his satchel?

<Ryan Sherbrig> Ryan idly checks to see if there's anything important in there.

<Hollyhock God> Well, eye protection for one.

<Ebba> (And be sure to have a conversation with E'jah, re: Dana's world creation, and how she is also having trouble coming up with complex self-sustaining universes. Are they collaborating any?)

<Hollyhock God> "I vote we give him over to the Leader," says Marley, mugging happily.

<Ebba> (One of those anti-static wrist straps, of course; nothing bad can happen to you if you are wearing one of them. :p )

<Hollyhock God> (According to E'jah, making the universes more complex physically is just grunt work, unpleasant but necessary. Creating a whole new set of Estates, though, is going to require a breakthrough on somebody's part.)

RyanSherbrig rolls his eyes again.

<Ebba> (From what I remember, it was the (Exalted) shinma that would define what the Estates could be that was the problem… )

<Hollyhock God> (Shinma are part of the work, yes, but there's also the lack of unimprinted first cause.)

<Ebba> (But see, you get them to explain their technical knowledge, and you smile and nod and look impressed… :D )

<Ryan Sherbrig> "Dana? Benjamin? Do you either of you have a use for this man, or some strong opinion on his fate, or you do agree with Marley as to abdicating responsibility to us?"

<Hollyhock God> "He seems a bit around the twist, if you ask me," says Benjamin. "I'm no doctor."

<Marcus> (Ooh, ooh, I am!)

<Hollyhock God> All problems are the responsibility of the Leader!

<Ryan Sherbrig> "Mmm. I could just take him to the Gardens, and once he acclimatizes, see if Marcus or myself can't just remove the crazy."

<Hollyhock God> It's settled!

<Hollyhock God> So you do that.

<Hollyhock God> Paging Dr. Oroboa!

<Ryan Sherbrig> Leaving some eye-spirits on him to make sure he doesn't bug out with crazy world-destroying horticulture or something, of course.

<Ryan Sherbrig> (I probably asked this before, sorry if I forgot the answer: What do the eye-spirits look like? Or are they naturally invisible?)

<Marcus> (Yes, because the last thing this Familia wants to be near is genocidal horticulturists.)

<Ebba> Hmm, now is Marley just making fun of you, or does she have some agenda?

<Ryan Sherbrig> (I suspect that might be her agenda.)

<Ryan Sherbrig> (It's her way of trying to seduce me through being annoying.)

<Hollyhock God> ("Once I dip Ryan's pigtails in ink, he'll just have to sleep with me.")

<Ryan Sherbrig> "At any rate, Dana, please accept my invitation to the Garden sometime soon so we can talk about this whole 'Leader of the Light' thing somewhere there isn't Lord Entropy or giant machines trying to destroy reality or whatnot hanging around."

<Marcus> (I love Marley.)

<Ebba> (Thankfully E'jah has never read from this book of romantic advice.)

<Hollyhock God> (Without Marley, you'd be out of a job!)

<Ebba> (Next, she'll get you a hat!)

<Ryan Sherbrig> ("I'll poison her tea! She'll have to love me!")

<Ryan Sherbrig> (It'd just be a minor inconvenience, after all.)

<Hollyhock God> ("I'll poison her tea with this Imperial potion I made. Then she really will have to love me!")

<Hollyhock God> (Oh, yes. RYAN SHERBRIG- SCHMOTT GUY)

<Ryan Sherbrig> (The little torch on top is very important.)

<Hollyhock God> The Unstoppable Higgs would be a great summon.

<Hollyhock God> It never gets angry. It never gets upset. It never uses more words than it has to. And it never stops.